I am off to Edinburgh where I will be speaking, for my first time as a honourary member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, to my “new colleagues”. The connections between Queen’s and Edinburgh are very strong, making this occasion even more special.
One has to look no farther than Queen’s Coat of Arms[i] to understand the closeness of the connections. Like that of the University of Edinburgh, after which Queen’s was fashioned, the centre of our coat of arms is also the St. Andrew’s cross, emblematic of patron saint of Scotland.
At the centre of the cross is a book, indicating that this coat of arms is for a place of learning. The four quadrants of the recognize Canada’s inextricable ties with the British Isles: a pine tree representing Canada, the English rose; a thistle for Scotland, and the Irish shamrock.
The red boarder implies that chronologically, Queen’s is younger than Edinburgh, and the eight gold crowns, symbolize Queen Victoria and the university’s Royal Charter.
Of course, Queen’s motto, Sapienta et Doctrina Stabilitas, serves as a banner, and for those who didn’t take Latin in high school, it means “Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times”.
ii
Not surprisingly, our first Principal, Thomas Liddell, was Scottish, having been educated in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. On 27 Oct. 1841 Liddell was nominated by the colonial committee of the Church of Scotland as principal of Queen’s College at Kingston, Canada West. Scottish-English relationships have, to this day, a “rich history”. So, not surprisingly, one of the motivators for the establishment of Queen’s was “to break the monopoly of the Church of England in higher education in Canada West”. The college opened on March 7, 1842 with one other professor, Peter Colin Campbell and 12 students; Liddell himself taught Hebrew, church history, theology, logic, mathematics, and moral philosophy.[iii]
If you have any Scottish stories to tell, or have a few words of Gaelic that I might use as a greeting to my Scottish colleagues, please comment on the blog…or better yet, please stop by the Macklem House, my door is always open.
Richard
The Queen’s Encyclopedia’s alphabetical listing does not include the first professor of classics, a Scotsman and Presbyterian Minister, George Romanes. More important for your new Scottish colleagues, is his distinguished son, George John Romanes, born in the residential part of Queen’s College on William Street in 1848. Like Liddell, the Romanes family returned to the UK, where George John Romanes became Charles Darwin’s research associate, made many brilliant scientific discoveries and founded an annual lecture series at Oxford – the famous Romanes Lectures. Bon voyage!
Dear Donald,
Thanks for reminding us all of this important history.
Richard
Richard-great posting. I am in the process of reading Tony Travill’s History of Medicine at Queen’s, which fits nicely with your decoding of the coat of arms. Based on the interpretive skills you displayed in interpreting the complex iconography of this noble shield, I have some cardiograms I may send your way. All the best, Stephen Archer
Thanks Stephen, and I am pleased to let our readers know that you have just arrived as our new Head of Medicine. Stephen comes to Queen’s from University of Chicago, where he was the Hines Professor of cardiology. As for reading cardiograms, I can’t do much more than Q waves in 2,3, and AVF = inferior MI.
Richard
Dear Richard
Thank you for reminding us of the great Scottish heritage of Queen’s and the ongoing connections with our Edinburgh confreres. As a military snare drummer in the Queen’s Pipe Band for five of my six years at Queen’s, I experienced the thrill of being on parade, bagpipes skirling and sporans and kilts swinging. At the time I was not aware of my family’s Scottish roots and would have given my eye teeth to have been able to wear an official clan hat badge as did many of the other band members. Then the discovery of my Hamilton genes and the ancestry of that clan from Hamilton, Paisley, Glasgow, the River Clyde valley and the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde. Two years ago my wife Heather of the MacFarlanes of Loch Lomond and I traced our Scottish roots including a visit to the Hamilton stronghold of Broddick Castle on Arran and the revelation of the relationship to the Dukes of Argyll. You may know of the famous Argyll and Sutherland Regiment with HQ at Sterling Castle. They epitomized the enduring ” Thin Red Line” holding fast against the charges of Russian cavalry at Sebastopol.
Visiting Edinburgh was the highlight esp being welcomed as a Fellow at the Royal College of Edinbugh where some 40 years previous I had been proposed by the then Regius Professor of Surgery at the Royal Infirmary, now Sir Patrick Forrest. A kindly gentleman at the 500 year old College asked if he could help me whilst we were wandering about the famous anatomical exhibits of the Royal College Museum. I gave my name and for some obscure reason my exam number 6188 . This corresponded to the first year that this man, Professor Iain MacLaren had been examining…he recognized me as one of his first examinees.
So, Richard, if Sir Patrick or Prof MacLaren are about give them my kind regards. I am sure that you will be extended the wonderful Scottish hospitality you deserve, perhaps even more as a Queen’s leader.
As to a Gaelic salutation, why not use the words of the Queen’s battle cry … Oil thigh na ban righ in , na ban righ in go brau! Garry
Dear Garry,
What wonderful stories, both about your family Heritage and your. Experience at RCSEd.
I just opened your comments tonight and have already left Edinburgh and am now in London? But I can imagine your surprise when you ran into a previous examiner! “thanks for the memories”
Richard
Your excellent historical account led me to more research regarding the special plant, thistle, which I now realised is the national flower of Scotland and well featured in the official Royal coat of Arms of the United Kingdom itself, apart from the version for use in Scotland. I also noticed the thistle is connected with Cambridge (HRH the Duke of Cambridge has been appointed a Knight of the Most Ancient
and Most Noble Order of the Thistle) and Oxford too (thistle featured for the coat of arms of Pembroke College, Oxford). Finally, the thistle IS the logo for Carnegie Mellon University.
While planning the historical torchlight tour for the annual orientation week, I read a history of medical education at Queen’s from a book by Dr. A.A. (Tony) Travill, the late professor for whom our annual debate is named.
Dr. Travill detailed that the foundation of medical education at Queen’s is directly related to its history as a Scottish institution. In the early 1850′s several Presbyterian medical students at the Upper Canada School of Medicine (Toronto) were told their MD degrees could not be granted without swearing loyalty to the Church of England. Queen’s was approached by a professor in Toronto asking if the college could accept the transfer of these students and grant their degrees so that they could graduate without betraying their religious affiliations.
Dr. Travill astutely noted that, because it had admitted the non-Anglican students effectively thrown out of the Upper Canada School of Medicine, Queen’s could rightly claim to be the first “school that granted degrees irrespective of religious creed – Protestant and Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Free Churchmen and Old-Churchmen, Wesleyan Methodists and other Methodists being, as disciples of Aesculapius, alike to her.”
Dear Sarah,
Thanks for your contribution. What a wonderful piece of history. Obviously Queen’s was the beneficiary of , I’m sure, some excellent students who would otherwise not have become physicians.
Richard